Every first-grader knows that sound is a unit of speech that we pronounce and hear, and letters we read and write. In Russian they are divided into vowels and consonants. Of the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet, 21 are called consonants. They are divided according to their sonority and dullness, softness and hardness. They begin to study the classification of letters in 1st grade, but the student will have to use it before graduating from school. When studying phonetics, each student must learn to distinguish between voiceless sounds and voiced sounds. During writing, they are indicated by transcription - [b]. The table will help you distinguish and remember paired consonant sounds.
All consonants in the Russian language form pairs; a voiced consonant is opposed to a voiceless consonant. There are 12 paired letters in total, making 6 pairs:
Paired and unpaired consonants need to be known in order to be successful in spelling. Many spellings of the Russian language are based on the selection of cognate words according to this classification, for example:
The first pair contains the letter g, which is not clearly heard when pronounced and spelling it is difficult. The second words are test words when the spelling is pronounced clearly. Younger students often make mistakes in these works.
You may notice that not all letters of the alphabet form pairs. This happens because phonetics has rules that need to be remembered. They are based on the fact that sounds can only be voiced or only unvoiced. They are easy to remember because they are small in number. As a rule, by the end of 1st grade, students know them by heart. These include r, n, l, m, th - sonorous, always voiced, ts, ch, sh, x - always voiceless.
Consonants are usually divided into hard and soft. In phonetics, the softening process occurs in several situations:
If after a consonant there is a vowel, except e, e, yu, ya, and, then it does not allow softening. For example, in the words peony, earth, after the consonant there is a vowel, which provokes the process of softening. In words such as lamp, water, there are no letters e, e, yu, i, and, therefore, when pronounced, all sounds are hard.
There are also letters that, when reproduced in speech, will always be soft or hard. These include: shch, h, j, c, w, g. Every student needs to know the classification of letters and sounds for successful learning.
A special table will help you remember paired voiced and voiceless voices. It's easy to navigate.
Such a table or a similar one can sometimes be found in the office primary classes. It has been proven that younger schoolchildren have more developed visual-figurative thinking, so they need to provide new information in the form of illustrations or pictures, then it will be effective.
Every parent can create such a table on a first-grader’s desktop. Do not be afraid that this tip will lead to laziness of the student. On the contrary, if he often looks at the image, he will quickly remember everything he needs.
There are more consonant sounds in the Russian language, so remembering their classification is more difficult. If you list all the unvoiced and voiced ones, you get the number 12. The letters ch, sh, y, shch, c, zh, r, n, l, m are not taken into account; they are classified as unpaired.
There are tips for children on how to quickly learn to recognize a voiced and a voiceless consonant when parsing a word. To do this, you need to press your palm to your throat and pronounce a clearly separate sound. Voiceless and voiced consonants will be pronounced differently and, accordingly, will be reflected differently in the palm of your hand. If there is vibration in the hand, it is voiced; if not, it is deaf. Many children use this hint when studying phonetics.
There is another exercise that helps to accurately determine which consonant is in front of the student. To do this, you need to cover your ears with your hands, but preferably there should be silence. Say the exciting letter and listen to it with your ears closed. If it is not heard, then it is a dull sound; if, on the contrary, it is clearly heard, it is a ringing sound.
If you try, today any parent can find many interesting, exciting and educational exercises and rules that will help the child easily master new knowledge. This will make the learning process more interesting and entertaining, which in turn will affect academic performance.
What is the difference between vowels and consonants and letters and sounds? What rules do they obey? How are the hardness and softness of sounds and letters indicated? You will receive answers to all these questions in this article.
Vowels and consonants represent the basis of the entire Russian language. After all, with the help of their combinations, syllables are formed that form words, expressions, sentences, texts, etc. That is why quite a lot of hours are devoted to this topic. high school.
A person learns what vowels and consonants are in the Russian alphabet already from the first grade. And despite the apparent simplicity of this topic, it is considered one of the most difficult for students.
So, in the Russian language there are ten vowel letters, namely: o, i, a, y, yu, i, e, e, u, e. During their immediate pronunciation, you can feel how the air passes through unhindered oral cavity. At the same time, we hear our own voice quite clearly. It should also be noted that vowel sounds can be drawn out (a-a-a-a, uh-uh-uh, i-i-i-i-i, u-u-u-u-u and so on ).
Vowels are the basis of a syllable, that is, they are the ones who organize it. As a rule, Russian words have as many syllables as vowels themselves. Let's give clear example: u-che-ni-ki - 5 syllables, re-bya-ta - 3 syllables, he - 1 syllable, o-no - 2 syllables and so on. There are even words that consist of only one vowel sound. Usually these are interjections (A!, Oh!, Oooh!) and conjunctions (and, a, etc.).
Endings, suffixes and prefixes are very important topics in the discipline "Russian language". After all, without knowing how such letters are written in a particular word, it is quite problematic to compose a literate letter.
Vowels and consonants letters and sounds vary significantly. And if the first ones can be easily pulled out, then the latter ones are pronounced as briefly as possible (except for hissing ones, since they can be pulled out).
It should be noted that in the Russian alphabet the number of consonant letters is 21, namely: b, v, g, d, zh, z, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, f, x, ts, h, w, shch. The sounds they denote are usually divided into dull and voiced. What is the difference? The fact is that during the pronunciation of voiced consonants, a person can hear not only the characteristic noise, but also his own voice (b!, z!, r!, etc.). As for the deaf, there is no way to pronounce them loudly or, for example, shout. They only create a kind of noise (sh-sh-sh-sh-sh, s-s-s-s-s, etc.).
Thus, almost everything is divided into two different categories:
Not everyone knows, but vowels and consonants can be hard and soft. This is the second most important feature in the Russian language (after voicedness and voicelessness).
A distinctive feature of soft consonants is that during their pronunciation the human tongue takes a special position. As a rule, it moves slightly forward, and its entire middle part rises slightly. As for when pronouncing them, the tongue is pulled back. You can compare the position of your speech organ yourself: [n] - [n’], [t] - [t’]. It should also be noted that voiced and soft sounds sound slightly higher than solid ones.
In the Russian language, almost all consonants have pairs based on softness and hardness. However, there are also those who simply do not have them. These include hard ones - [zh], [sh] and [ts] and soft ones - [th"], [h"] and [sh"].
Surely few people have heard that the Russian language has soft vowels. Soft consonants are sounds quite familiar to us, which cannot be said about the above-mentioned ones. This is partly due to the fact that in secondary school practically no time is devoted to this topic. After all, it is already clear with the help of which vowels the consonants become soft. However, we still decided to dedicate you to this topic.
So, those letters that are capable of softening the consonants preceding them are called soft. These include the following: i, e, i, e, yu. As for letters such as a, y, y, e, o, they are considered hard because they do not soften the consonants in front. To see this, here are a few examples:
Phonetics studies the sounds and letters of the Russian language. Surely, in high school you were asked more than once to make a word. During such an analysis, it is imperative to indicate whether it is separately considered or not. If yes, then it must be designated as follows: [n’], [t’], [d’], [v’], [m’], [p’]. That is, at the top right next to the consonant letter before the soft vowel, you need to put a kind of dash. The following soft sounds are marked with a similar icon - [th"], [h"] and [w"].
The speech of a person, especially a native speaker, must not only be correct, but also beautiful, emotional, and expressive. Voice, diction, and consistent spelling standards are important here.
The ability to correctly pronounce sounds consists of practical exercises (voice training: volume, timbre, flexibility, diction, etc.) and knowledge of in what cases a particular pronunciation of a sound is appropriate (orthoepic norms).
Before talking about the letters that represent soft consonant phonemes, you should remember the basic phonetic concepts and terms.
Let's start with the fact that there are no soft consonants in Russian words. Since sound is what we hear and pronounce, it is elusive, it is an indivisible part of speech, which is obtained as a result of human articulation. A letter is only a graphic symbol denoting a particular sound. We see them and write them.
There is no complete correspondence between them. The number of letters and sounds in one word may not match. The Russian alphabet consists of thirty-three letters, and speech has forty-seven sounds.
Accurate in the word through letters - transcription. The letters in this case are written in square brackets. At phonetic analysis each sound must be written with a separate letter, put an emphasis and indicate softness, if necessary ["], for example, milk - [malako], mole - [mol"] - in in this case the letter l with an apostrophe indicates a soft sound [l"].
When a stream of air flies out of the throat without encountering obstacles on its way, it turns out (singing). There are six of them in the Russian language. They are shock and unstressed.
If the air leaving the larynx does not pass freely, then a consonant sound is obtained. They are formed from noise or noise and voice. There are thirty-seven consonant phonemes in our Russian language.
Also, according to pronunciation, there are soft consonants (the letters that represent them are written with an apostrophe) and hard sounds. They differ in pronunciation - when speaking a soft consonant, a person raises the middle back of the tongue high to the palate.
So, letters are the designations of sounds in writing. The science that studies them is graphics. The alphabet is graphic images sounds of the language, arranged in a certain order. The ten letters of the Russian alphabet are vowel letters that represent vowel sounds. It also includes twenty-one consonants and two letters that do not represent sounds at all. Each letter in the alphabet has its own unique name. Modern alphabet was created in 1918 and officially approved in 1942. Now these graphic signs are used in more than fifty different languages peace.
In the Russian language, the composition of speech sounds and letters differs due to the specifics of the letter - the letters of soft consonant sounds and hard ones are identical - ate [y "el", el [y "el"]; and six vowels are indicated in writing by ten letters. This is how it turns out that there are fourteen more sounds in speech than letters in the alphabet.
Consonant phonemes form pairs: voiced - voiceless, soft - hard. But there are those that will always sound firm - these are w, sh, ts. Even in the words parachute, brochure and cognates w will remain solid. In some foreign words, they are pronounced differently.
There is also a trio of sounds that are always soft, consonant letters denoting them - h, sch, th. There are no exceptions to these rules in Russian.
Consonants are mostly paired, that is, each hard sound corresponds to its softer pronunciation. The letters denoting soft ones will be identical. In the transcription, the sign ["] will be added to them.
How to determine where soft consonants will appear? Letters do not immediately form words; they first form syllables. The softness or hardness of the pronunciation of a consonant depends on what the sound is coming behind him in a syllable.
A syllable is a sound or several sounds that are pronounced in one breath, with one push of air.
Vowels are syllable-forming sounds, consonants are adjacent to them - the syllable is obtained: mo-lo-ko, let-ta-yu-sha-ya fish. The number of syllables in a word is equal to the number of vowels in it.
Open syllables end with vowel sounds: picture - car- Tina, lawful - right-dimensional.
If a syllable ends with a consonant, it is a closed syllable: car-ti-na, legitimate - right-in measured.
In the middle of a word there are often open syllables, and the consonants adjacent to them are transferred to the next syllable: po-ddat, di-ktor. The sounds that can close a syllable within a word are voiced, unpaired, hard consonants and soft. Letters for writing them - y, r, l, m, n. For example: kitty - ki-sony-ka.
There are divisions of words into syllables and parts for transfer, as well as into morphemes. This is the syllabic, or syllabic, principle of graphics. It also applies to consonants.
It manifests itself in relation to consonants in that it determines the unit of reading and writing:
So, in order to understand whether the sound defined in a word is soft or hard, you need to pay attention to what comes after it in the syllable.
If any consonant follows the one we are interested in, then the sound being identified is hard. For example: chatter - chatter, T- solid.
If the next one is a vowel, then you need to remember that before a, o, u, e, s stand For example: mother, fetters, vine.
And, e, yu, I, e- letters denoting a soft consonant sound. For example, a song is a song, p, n- soft, while With- solid.
In order to speak well and correctly read soft consonants and sounds, you need to develop your understanding and discrimination of speech sounds. A well-developed ability to clearly identify what sounds are in a word, even if you hear it for the first time, will allow you to better remember and understand the speech of others. And the main thing is to speak more beautifully and correctly yourself.
The syllabic principle is convenient because it allows you to reduce the number of letters in the alphabet. After all, in order to designate soft and hard consonant phonemes, it would be necessary to invent, create, and users would have to learn fifteen new graphic elements. This is exactly what is contained in our speech. In practice, it turned out to be enough to determine the vowels indicating which letters have soft consonants.
The softness of sound is indicated by ["] only when writing a transcription - sound analysis of a word.
When reading or writing, there are two ways to represent soft consonants.
Even when applying the syllabic principle, problems arise with e before a consonant, they are so deep that they turn into orthoepy. Some scientists believe that a necessary condition euphony is a ban on writing e after hard consonants, because this grapheme defines soft consonants and interferes with the correct pronunciation of hard ones. There is a suggestion to replace e to single digit uh. Before the introduction, unified spelling of syllables e-e in 1956, paired spelling of such words (adequate - adequate) was actively and legally practiced. But unification did not solve the main problem. Replacing e with uh after hard consonants, obviously, it won’t either ideal solution, new words appear more and more often in the Russian language, and in what case to write one or another letter remains controversial.
Let's return to where we started - our speech - it is determined by orthoepy. On the one hand, these are developed norms for correct pronunciation, and on the other, this is a science that studies, justifies and establishes these norms.
Orthoepy serves the Russian language, blurring the lines between adverbs to make it easier for people to understand each other. So that, when communicating with each other, representatives different regions they thought about what they were saying, and not about how this or that word sounded from the interlocutor.
The foundation of the Russian language and, therefore, pronunciation is the Moscow dialect. It was in the capital of Russia that science began to develop, including orthoepy, so the norms require us to speak - to pronounce sounds like Muscovites.
Orthoepy gives one The right way pronunciations, rejecting all others, but at the same time sometimes allowing options that are considered correct.
Despite clear, understandable and simple rules, orthoepy notes many features, nuances and exceptions in how letters are pronounced, denoting a soft consonant sound and a hard one...
Which letters have soft consonants? Ch, sch, th- Under no circumstances should you pronounce hard sounds instead of soft sounds. But this rule is violated, falling under the influence of the Belarusian language and even Russian dialects and reprimands. Remember how in this Slavic group the word sounds more, For example.
L- this is a paired consonant sound, respectively, standing immediately before the consonant or at the end of the word it should sound firm. Before oh, a, y, uh, s too (tent, corner, skier), but in some words that came to us more often from foreign languages, whose speakers live mainly in Europe, and which are proper names, l pronounced almost softly (La Scala, La Rochelle, La Fleur).
The last consonants in the prefix before the hard sign, even if followed by letters denoting a soft consonant sound, are pronounced firmly (entrance, announcement). But for consonants With And h this rule does not have full force. Sounds With And h in this case they can be pronounced in two ways (congress - [s"]ezd - [s]ezd).
The rules of orthoepy state that the final consonant in a word cannot be softened, even if it merges with the next word starting with e (in this, to the equator, with emu). If such a consonant is softened in speech, this indicates that the person communicates through a colloquial style.
"b" also belongs to the list of "soft consonants" and the sounds before it should be pronounced softly, even the sounds m, b, p, c, f in words such as seven, eight, ice hole, shipyard, etc. Pronounce soft sounds firmly in front of " b" is unacceptable. Only in the words eight hundred and seven hundred m may not have a soft, but a hard sound.
Which letters represent soft consonants, you need to remember clearly - e, yu, yo, i, and.
So, in many foreign words before e the consonant sound is not softened. This often happens with labial m, f, c, b, p. P- Chopin, coupe; b- Bernard Show; V- Solveig; f- auto-da-fe; m- reputation, consommé.
Much more often than these consonants, firmly before e dental consonants sound r, n, z, s, d, t. R- Reichswehr, Roerich; n- pince-nez, tour; h- chimpanzee, Bizet; With- highway, Musset; d- dumping, masterpiece; T- pantheon, aesthetics.
Thus, the letters of soft consonants have a fairly definite composition, but fall under a number of exceptions.
Usually, children do not have serious difficulties understanding the difference between vowels and consonants. But we should dwell in more detail on hard and soft consonants.
The very first thing you need to teach your child: consonant sounds can be hard and soft, but not letters.
Typical error:
Children confuse sounds and letters. We remember that a sound sounds, and a letter is an icon, it is written. A letter cannot be hard or soft; only a consonant sound can be hard or soft in pronunciation.
Sometimes children can easily learn to distinguish soft and hard sounds by ear.
But it happens that this is difficult, and in this case signs will come to the rescue by which you can distinguish hard sounds from soft ones.
Working on examples:
In the words “mama” and “nora” the consonants are hard, because they are followed by “a” and “o”.
In the words “fly” and “nanny” the consonants are soft because they are followed by “e”, “i”, “ya”.
Always hard sounds - zh, sh, ts.
Always soft - th, h, shch.
A common way to learn these sounds is a simple technique: we write the letters that convey these sounds on a line, and emphasize “th, ch, sch.” The underscore symbolizes the cushion on which the soft sounds sit. The pad is soft, which means the sounds are soft.
This rule is easy to apply if the child sees the written word, but it will not help if the child performs the task by ear.
When pronouncing a soft sound, the tongue moves slightly forward, approaching (or touching) the palate with its middle.
When pronouncing hard sounds, the tongue does not move forward.
Solid:
Soft:
A picture or simply a list of thematic words is shown, and the task is given to choose words with soft or hard consonants. For example:
There are 11 pairs of voiced/voiceless consonants in the Russian language.
The phonetic difference between voiced and voiceless consonants lies in the tension of the vocal cords. Voiceless sounds are pronounced with the help of noise, without straining the ligaments. Voiced sounds are pronounced by voice and are caused by vibration of the vocal cords, because air comes out of the larynx noisily.
Mnemonic technique for memorizing voiceless sounds:
Learn the phrase: “Styopka, do you want some cheek? - Fi! All consonant sounds here are unvoiced.
Tasks for training the differences between paired consonants can be compiled for each pair according to the following principle (using the example of the D/T pair):
Tasks for distinguishing a pair of consonants G/K
The most important part of speech are words; we pronounce, write and read them, and from them we put together phrases and sentences. They consist of letters and sounds that have become so firmly established in our lives that we hardly notice them.
Letters and sounds are not the same thing, although they are closely interrelated concepts. We write, see and read letters, and we pronounce and hear sounds. Letters are graphic written symbols, while sounds are the acoustic component of words and human speech in general. In different words, the same letter sometimes corresponds to different sounds.
“In the beginning there was the word. Then words, words, words..." (author Vladimir Kolechitsky).
“The word is given to a person not for self-satisfaction, but for the embodiment and transmission of that thought, that feeling, that share of truth and inspiration that he possesses - to other people.” (author V. Korolenko).
Various branches of linguistic science study letters and sounds. Studies sounds phonetics, and alphabetic characters - graphic arts. Spelling letters is a prerogative spelling .
The collection of letters of any language makes up its alphabet. The letters of the Russian language are divided into consonants, vowels and auxiliaries. Auxiliary signs include those that do not carry sound information - hard and soft signs.
Consonant sounds and letters are characterized by the fact that during their pronunciation a certain obstacle appears in the path of air in the oral cavity. As a result, noise is necessarily present in the acoustic sound of consonants. They got the name “consonants” because they almost always stand next to vowels or in the same word with them.
There are a total of 21 consonant letters in the Russian language:
| b | V | G | d | and | h | th |
| To | l | m | n | P | R | With |
| T | f | X | ts | h | w | sch |
Another characteristic feature of consonants is that they cannot be chanted. The pronunciation of sibilant consonants can be stretched (for example: With , f , w , sch), but “singing” will not work.
As noted above, consonants in words almost always coexist with vowels. However, there are a limited number of words that consist only of consonants. Along with prepositions To , With or particle b, these are some foreign proper names ( Krch- Prague region; Armenian name Mkrtch, which in Russian is sometimes written with a vowel - for euphony), as well as interjections like brr or shh .
The classification of consonant letters and sounds in the Russian language is based on acoustic criteria.
Those consonants whose pronunciation consists only of noise are called voiceless. In contrast, consonants formed by sound and noise are called voiced.
The letter stands apart th(and short). According to its acoustic sound, it is classified as a voiced consonant, however, it is impossible to pronounce it in isolation. Letter th can only be pronounced together with a preceding or following vowel sound, for example [yy], [yy], etc.
Most voiced consonants correspond to certain unvoiced ones. Such letters that are consonant with each other are called paired. There are also consonants that do not have a pair. Among them there are also deaf and voiced, and they are called unpaired .
| Paired voiced and voiceless | Unpaired voiced | Unpaired deaf |
|---|---|---|
| b - p | l | X |
| v - f | m | ts |
| g - k | n | h |
| d - t | R | sch |
| f - w | th | |
| z - s |
The pronunciation of consonants in words can be hard or soft. If the sound is pronounced softly, the tongue moves forward slightly, approaching or touching the upper palate. When pronouncing hard sounds, the tongue does not move forward (but the tongue can touch the upper palate due to an upward movement).
Most consonants form both hard and soft sounds, but there are some exceptions. In particular, the letters and , ts , w always have a hard sound, and the letters th , h , sch- soft.
In other cases, the hardness or softness of the consonants is determined by which letter comes after them.
If the consonant is accompanied by letters A , O , at , uh , s , ъ- then it turns out solid sound. The same applies if a consonant is at the end of a word or another consonant comes after it.
If the consonant is accompanied by letters e
, e
, And
, Yu
, I
, b- then its sound will be soft.
Video lesson
Some of the consonants in Russian are pronounced like hissing. These are the sounds and , w , sch , h, which are called sibilant consonants.
Another group of consonant sounds, when leaving the oral cavity, forms acoustic vibrations that resemble a whistle. These are the sounds h , With , ts- whistling.
The properties of hissing and whistling consonants are especially noticeable when they are pronounced for a long time.
One of important features of these sounds is that most of the speech defects are associated with their pronunciation. For this reason, work with hissing and whistling consonants should be given Special attention when teaching children. It is important to note that speech deficiencies associated with these sounds may be amenable to speech therapy correction.
Unlike consonants and letters, characteristic feature vowels is that when they are pronounced, air passes through the oral cavity freely. As a result, vowel sounds can not only be easily stretched, but also chanted. Another one distinctive feature- they can be pronounced as loudly as you like, at the full strength of your voice.
Through vowels and sounds, consonants are combined into syllables. Each syllable has only one vowel. The number of other letters - consonants, hard and soft signs - may be different. Words can consist of one or more syllables: ros-pis, breaking , yard , painting .
The number of vowels in the Russian language is 10:
| A | e | e | And | O | at | s | uh | Yu | I |
And there are only 6 vowel sounds: [a], [i], [o], [u], [s], [e]. The vowels corresponding to them are monophonic. The remaining 4 vowels are e , e , Yu , I- two-voiced, and separately pronounced as [ye], [yo], [yu], [ya]. At the same time, in words these letters mean one sound (examples: squirrel, ball, went, key).
As with consonants, there are a number of Russian words that consist only of vowel sounds. These are pronouns - I , her; unions - And , A; prepositions - at , O; interjections - uh , aw .
In words, vowel sounds can be stressed or unstressed.
As a rule, in traditional writing, words are not stressed. If necessary, they are indicated by the sign “acute” - a small “/” stroke above the vowel letter.
Video lesson
Phonetic or sound analysis of a word serves the purpose of displaying and parsing it correct pronunciation. Both words and individual letters can be designated phonetically.
Designations of sounds, unlike letters, are enclosed in square brackets. A graphic recording of the pronunciation of a word is called transcription.
The basic rules according to which sounds are designated during phonetic analysis of a word are as follows:
Video lesson
Sometimes children may have difficulty distinguishing between hard and soft consonants. In this case, there are some techniques that make it easier to understand the topic.
First of all, you need to explain to the child that the concepts of hardness and softness refer not to consonant letters, but to their sounds. And that the same letter can sound both hard and soft. Let me give you an example: “ b" - the words ram - white, " R" - work - belt, " l"- horse - swan.
When explaining the exception letters, for better memorization it is recommended to write them like this:
You need to make it clear to the child that the underlined letters seem to be “sitting on pads” - the pads are soft and the letters are also soft.
In order for the child to remember well before which vowels the letter becomes hard or soft, you can use the following technique: first, with a serious expression on your face, read a syllable with a hard consonant - and then, with a smile on your face, read another syllable where this consonant is soft. Then, do the same with other letters and syllables. For example: la — la , mu — mi , zo — son, bo — byu , ry — ryo etc. A child associates soft pronunciation well with a smile, and hard pronunciation with seriousness and severity, which allows him to associatively remember the material.
Gradually you need to improve your skills and do the same exercises with simple words, such as: Mother , dad A - uncle , aunt etc. As you memorize, from simple words you should move on to more complex ones. Explanations and exercises must be gradually alternated with tasks: write words and then ask which consonants in them are hard and which are soft.
You can also suggest another exercise: make signs with words in which soft consonants are written in one color, and hard consonants in another. For example:
There are many options, but it is advisable to choose among them those that your child likes best. This contributes to better perception of the material, its memorization and practical assimilation.
Video lesson
Knowledge of letters and sounds, their spelling and pronunciation is the basis of language literacy. In turn, good command of spoken and written language is one of the indicators of a person’s erudition, and the skills of reading and understanding text are the basis for knowledge of other sciences. After all, the lion's share of information in modern world is comprehended by reading or listening, and only a small part of it is through personal experience.
